Geography & Strategy - CounterStrikeMedia

ISRAEL'S IRON DOME ON WATER

11/29/2017

IRON DOME ON WATER

Is Iron Dome a Poisoned Chalice?
By Elizabeth M. Bartels, Strategy Bridge: “A new wave of think pieces has emerged suggesting that those charged with the defense of South Korea can learn from the progress made by Israel, particularly with its successful Iron Dome system.”

RAND’s Elizabeth Bartels: Lessons of Israel’s Iron Dome

THE DIVERGING UNDERSTANDING OF THE NORTH KOREAN THREAT; INDIA, CHINA & THE LOGIC OF GEOGRAPHY FOR STRATEGY IN THE INDO-PACIFIC

11/29/2017

ASIA TIMES

DEFENSE ONE

WHY KOREAN UNIFICATION IS UNLIKELY

11/29/2017

ASIA TIMES

THE HANDOFF: BRITISH LEADERSHIP & AMERICAN HEGEMONY

11/29/2017

New & Noteworthy
mentioning Kori Schake via The New York Times
Britain handed off global leadership to the United States in a peaceful and seemingly seamless transition. Kori Schake wants to understand the long trajectory of the shift in power that culminated in American hegemony.

Foreign Policy White Paper 2017: The U.S. Isn’t Going Away
By Tom Switzer, The Strategist (ASPI): “We are told Donald Trump’s America is retreating from the region. But they also warn that Australia shouldn’t sign up to a U.S.-led containment strategy against Beijing. Which is it? Is Uncle Sam pulling up the drawbridge and locking itself out of Asia? Or is it leading a regional coalition to deter a rising China?”

CHINA'S DENIAL & ACCESS CAPABILITY

11/28/2017

Towards China’s A2/AD 2.0
By Malcolm Davis, The Strategist (ASPI): “China’s military modernization remains a key concern for the U.S. and its allies. Crucial in that regard has been China’s development of forces geared towards preventing uncontested access to its air and maritime approaches by potential adversaries. ”

SOLDIERS & CIVILIZATION: COMMAND AND MORAL PRUDENCE

11/28/2017

Soldiers and Civilization
By Pauline Shanks Kaurin, Strategy Bridge: “What do the ideas of narrative as doctrine, Stoicism, defeat, chivalry, and fighting for pay tell us about the development of military professionalism in the West?”

Military Command as Moral Prudence: Examples from History and Literature
By Reed Bonadonna, Strategy Bridge: “The conception of military command, indeed of all situations in war that call for the exercise of judgment, as a form of moral prudence has the potential to enrich the moral dimensions of the military profession.”

ALLIANCES: U.S. FRAMEWORK FOR "THE LONG WAR"

11/22/2017

America’s Shift from Confrontation to Cooperation
By Oleg Svet, Strategy Bridge: “ ... over the past two decades U.S. commanders quietly came to recognize this reality and transformed the military from “a force of confrontation to one of cooperation.” When a crisis erupts today, America responds “not by sending combat forces...but instead by sending weapons, trainers, and advisors.” In other words, it tries (and often succeeds) in finding allies whose interests are sufficiently close to those of the U.S. they are willing fight its wars.”

Winning in the Gray Zone
By Bryan Clark, Mark Gunzinger & Jesse Sloman , CSBA: “The United States has again entered a period characterized by great power competition after a quarter century as the world’s sole superpower. By expanding exports in a globalizing economy and exploiting the precision-strike weapons revolution, China and Russia have improved their military capabilities and economic positions over the last 20 years. They now seek to revise the international order in their favor, in part by undermining U.S. influence in their regions and beyond.”

U.S. POLICY WITH NORTH KOREA HAS FAILED

11/22/2017

Newly Declassified Documents Prove America's North Korea Strategy Has Failed
By James Holmes, The National Interest: “Thanks to the National Security Archive, last week’s declassification of over a dozen Bush-era documents on the North Korean nuclear issue demonstrates the extent to which administration officials in Washington were frantically trying to come to a consensus policy on preventing Pyongyang from becoming a nuclear power.The documents also show, however, how little the North Korea discussion within the U.S. government has changed over the last twenty-five to thirty years.”

Dealing With North Korea
By Paul Cook, RealClearDefense: “The regime has also demonstrated a proclivity for breaking international law and undermining international oversight of nuclear development. It is imperative that as North Korea’s nuclear capability increases, we continue to put pressure on Kim Jong Un and his regime. ”

U.S. SEEKS ADVANTAGES AS IT COMPETS WITH MOTHER RUSSIA

11/20/2017

Exploiting Advantages in the Competition With Russia
By Daniel Gouré, RealClearDefense: “It is a mistake to view the current struggle between Russia and the Western allies primarily as a military competition. Certainly, in view of the Kremlin’s willingness to use force to resolve political conflicts along its periphery, attention must be paid to NATO’s ability to deter Moscow. But if Russia is denied the possibility of a quick, low cost military campaign, then the competition will be decided on other battlefields. It is in these other domains that the U.S. and its allies have the advantage and are likely to prevail.”

THOMAS DONNELLY TAKES ON NORTH KOREA: ITS OVER!

11/19/2017

A Brutal, But Reasonable, Response To North Korea
by Thomas Donnelly via Strategika
Applying the adjective “reasonable” in a North Korean context is, well, not reasonable. It’s not that the Pyongyang regime is entirely irrational, but it is certainly “differently rational” in a way that is nearly impossible for consent-of-the-people democracies to comprehend. In imagining conventional military options to change the Kim regime or to eliminate its offensive capabilities—that is, to remove the threats North Korea poses to its neighbors, the East Asian balance of power and, now, the United States itself—“effectiveness” is a better measure. This is a case where brutality looks reasonable.

THUCYDIDES TRAP FOR "YUTES"

11/16/2017

The Thucydides Trap … or a Trap for Young Players
By Allan Behm, The Strategist (ASPI): “Sadly, hermeneutics—or exegesis as it was formerly known—is not much in vogue these days. Maybe that reflects the fact that most of us rely on translation for our glimpses into the texts written in ancient (and dead) languages. And the word ‘hermeneutics’ itself needs a bit of exegesis: most understand it as ‘interpretation’, though Aristotle’s Peri Hermēneiasactually deals with ‘explanation’.”

WHY FALLUJAH MATTERS & THE NATURE OF MILITARY DOCTRINE

11/15/2017

Why Fallujah Is One of the Marine Corps' Most Legendary Battles
By Donald Baker, We Are the Mighty: “The Battle of Fallujah was the biggest battle of the Iraq War yet many don’t know about the battle itself, let alone a significant day in this battle. It marked some of the fiercest fighting the U.S. military had seen in some thirty years.”

The Nature of Military Doctrine: A Decade of Study in 1500 Words
By Aaron P. Jackson, Strategy Bridge: “By blaming doctrine for military shortcomings we (often unwittingly) shield our belief systems from deeper scrutiny.”

THE FRENCH IN ALGERIA: HOW THEY WON THE WAR BUT LOST THE PEACE

11/15/2017

WAR IS BORING

MILITARY MIGHT CANNOT FIX IMMORAL IDEOLOGIES

11/14/2017

Lessons of War: Military Might Can't Right Ideologies
By Maurice O'Sullivan, Orlando Sentinel: “Sen. John McCain’s recent comment that the U.S. has never had a comprehensive strategic plan for the Middle East helps explain why our longest war may prove endless. But it also reveals how little national conversation we have had about the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan.”

SELF REFLECTION REMAINS ETHICAL FOUNDATION FOR LEADERSHIP

11/14/2017

Lead Yourself First
By Matthew J. Smith, Strategy Bridge: ““If I was to sum up the single biggest problem of senior leadership in the information age, it’s a lack of reflection.””

THE TRINITY IN THE LAW OF WAR

11/13/2017

The Trinity and the Law of War
By Julie Anna Glascott, Strategy Bridge: “In Prussian theorist Carl von Clausewitz’s seminal military treatise, On War, he introduced the “paradoxical trinity.” The trinity is a useful tool to conceptualize the chaos of war and has been described as the tension between three fundamental elements of war: the government, the people, and the army.”

MISSILE DEFENSE & PROXY WARS: GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT

11/13/2017

Missile Defense for the Multipolar World
By Baker Spring, RealClearDefense: “Robust missile defense is an essential military capability to bolster deterrence and maintain peace andstability in today’s multipolar world. The reason is that it makes unique contributions to the necessary damage-limitation strategy for deterrence.”

America’s Options - From Proxy Wars to Direct War
By Masoud Kazemzadeh & Penny Watson, Small Wars Journal: “The Middle East appears on the precipice of a great war. The fundamentalist rulers of Iran are confident that their goal of establishing a coalition of Shia countries and regions under their control is nearing fruition.”

THE U.S. PLAN TO COUNTER CHINA REVEALED

11/13/2017

ASIA TIMES

On Asia tour, Trump displays his transactional views
of international affairs
by Axel Hellman
President Trump’s Asia tour was intended to signal U.S resolve and his own rapport with regional leaders. But the continued investigation into his campaign’s collusion with Russia, paired with pushback against his seeming defense of Vladimir Putin, threatened to overshadow the president’s agenda.

Dominating that agenda was North Korea. In a speech to the South Korean assembly, Trump called for Pyongyang’s “complete, verifiable, and total denuclearization”. Notably, he toned down his rhetoric, noting in Hanoi that he sought “progress not provocation…stability not chaos, and peace, not war”. Yet the prospects for a diplomatic solution are slim. Trump’s earlier fiery remarks, ranging from personal insults of Kim Jong-un to threats to “totally destroy” North Korea, has narrowed the political space for diplomacy. A sudden change in rhetoric is unlikely to alter that.

In China, Trump derided “one-sided” and “unfair” trade practices, but made clear that he did not blame the Chinese leadership for this – instead, he insisted that his predecessors were at fault for his countries economic woes. Meanwhile, the remaining eleven members of the TPP announced that they had reached a framework to move forward with the agreement without the United States. This reinforced the notion of an increasingly isolated America.

Whereas his predecessor pursued a comprehensive strategic rebalance towards the Asia Pacific under the so-called ‘pivot’, Trump’s policy towards the region seems likely to be marked by ad hoc diplomatic initiatives undergirded by a transactional view of international affairs. Trump made several references to the “Indo-Pacific” – a nascent initiative for closer cooperation between the United States, Japan, Australia, and India as a bulwark of sorts against China’s expansion. For now, however, the United States has yet to reassure allies of its commitment to the region – one of many uncertainties generated by “America First.”

THE PRESIDENTS FOOTBALL

11/13/2017

BREAKING DEFENSE

THE WEAKNESS OF THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR DEAL THE U.S. CAN EXPLOIT

11/13/2017

AEI

CHINA "JAW-BONES" NORTH KOREA: WHAT DOES AMERICA GET?

11/13/2017

AEI

North Korea Threat Likely to Boost Navy's Aegis Missile Shield
By Loren Thompson, Forbes: “Aegis isn't a warship, it is an integrated architecture of long-range, high-resolution radars linked to a fire control system, a command module and a family of surface-to-air missiles.”

MAKE NORTH KOREA A NO FLY ZONE
In a Washington Post op-ed, Marc A. Thiessen argues that President Trump should look to the success of his Syrian strike as a model in developing a North Korea policy. “Specifically, he should announce that North Korean nuclear and missile tests will no longer be tolerated — that, henceforth, North Korea is a ballistic missile ‘no-fly zone’ and a nuclear weapons ‘no-test zone.’ Any attempt by North Korea to launch a ballistic missile will be met with a targeted military strike either taking out the missile on the launchpad or blowing it up in the air using missile defense technology.” Continue here.

TRUMP SENDS CARRIER GROUP TO SOUTH KOREA TO PENETRATE AN IMPENETRABLE DARKNESS

11/9/2017

THE COMPETITION BETWEEN GREAT POWERS IS ON & SATELLITE FEED ON CHINESE INTENSIONS ON THE AFRICAN HORN

11/8/2017

The Strategist Six: Thomas Mahnken
By Brendan Nicholson, The Strategist (ASPI): “The historian in me says that from the not too distant future we’ll look back and see 2017 and the time around it as a turning point in the way we think about navies and warfare ... ”

Mimicking Rome: Adapting to the Nimbleness of New Threats
By Will Staton, Strategy Bridge: “The logistical nimbleness and smaller armies trained to deal with the unique threats along the empire's borders allowed Rome to sustain her western empire for hundreds of years after expansion had stopped.”

Dr. Graham Allison on the Likelihood of War With China
By Lionel Beehner, Modern War Institute: “According to Dr. Graham Allison, the most significant world event of the last several decades was not 9/11 or the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was the rapid rise of China.”

RUSSIAN DOCTRINE OF DECEPTION

CHINA: Satellite Imagery Offers Clues to China’s Intentions in Djibouti
By Mike Yeo, Defense News: “Chinese President Xi Jinping has told People’s Liberation Army troops stationed at an overseas base in Djibouti to “promote international and regional peace and stability,” according to China’s Ministry of National Defense. However, satellite imagery reveals information that could further detail China’s intentions.”

THE AFGHAN PEACE DILEMMA: WE NEED A NEW STRATEGY

11/7/2017

A Peace Dilemma: Afghan Peace Talks Require a New Approach
By Abdul Rahman Rahmani, Strategy Bridge: “Afghanistan’s approach to peace talks with the Taliban requires a new strategy that includes a regional approach, the involvement of the international community, and the support of the United States. All these factors are critical to guarantee a lasting peace deal.”

LENIN'S STRATEGY FOR RED OCTOBER

11/7/2017

Russia’s October Revolution, 100 Years Later
By Jacqueline Westermann, The Strategist (ASPI): “The anniversary presents a dilemma for Putin. He’s averse to such revolts generally and dismissed the ‘coloured’ revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine as being orchestrated by outside powers. But the October Revolution eventually resulted in the founding of the Soviet Union, whose dissolution Putin said was the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'”

GLOBAL GEOPOLITICS

ATLAS PRO YOUTUBE

DOUGLAS BARRIE: SPACE DEFENSE

THOMAS BUSSING: RAYTHEON MISSILE DEFENSE, STRATEGIEST

JAMES ACTON: NUCLEAR MISSILE DEFENSE

DR. MICHAEL PILLSBURY

HENRY ROWEN
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CHARLES WOLF JR.
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ANDREW MASHALL 'YODA'
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AMERICA NEEDS NEW ALLIANCES

why_america_needs_new_alliances_-_wsj.pdf
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POLYBIUS & ANCIENT GRAND STRATEGY
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CENTER FOR POLITICAL & MILITARY POWER

SUN TZU ISN'T WORKING FOR CHINA ANYMORE

SUN TZU ISN'T WORKING FOR CHINA
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THE QURAN & MORAL STRATEGY FOR THE LONG WAR

WHEN WAR WITHOUT END, FINALLY ENDS

WHEN WAR WITHOUT END, FINALLY ENDS
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THUCYDIDES & THE LONG WAR PROBLEM

HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

WHAT HAPPENED DURING PELOPONNESIAN WAR
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THUCYDIDES TRAP IS GREAT POWER COMPETITION

THUCYDIDES TRAP = GREAT POWER COMPETITION
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CENTER STRATEGIC, BUDGETARY ASSESSMENTS: U.S. GRAND STRATEGY

DAVID P. GOLDMAN COLUMN ASIA TIMES

HOW BEST TO UNDERSTAND U.S. - CHINA RELATIONS

STRATEGY BRIDGE

Winning World War IV David P. Goldman.pdf
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THE NEW ASIAN OBSERVER

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